Feature Channels: Mental Health

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Will astronauts traveling to Mars remember much of it? That’s the question concerning University of California, Irvine scientists probing a phenomenon called “space brain.” UCI’s Charles Limoli and colleagues found that exposure to highly energetic charged particles – much like those found in the galactic cosmic rays that will bombard astronauts during extended spaceflights – causes significant long-term brain damage in test rodents, resulting in cognitive impairments and dementia.

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A new tool developed at Berkeley Lab allows researchers to interactively explore the hierarchical processes that happen in the brain when it is resting or performing tasks. Scientists also hope that the tool can shed some light on how neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s spread throughout the brain.

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Tulane University formally launched its new Brain Institute, a university-wide initiative created to coordinate and support brain-related research and neuroscience endeavors at Tulane.

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A new study suggests many patients at risk for suicide would voluntarily place their name on a Do Not Sell list, prohibiting gun shops from immediately selling them a firearm.

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PTSD experts agree that the condition has its roots in very real, physical processes within the brain – and not some sort of psychological “weakness”. But no clear consensus has emerged about what exactly has gone “wrong” in the brain. A new theory that integrates decades of research focuses on a key function called context processing.

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A team of cancer specialists and health economists have developed a tool that can measure a patient’s risk for, and ability to tolerate, the financial stress associated with treatment.

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Seattle Children’s Intensive Outpatient OCD Treatment Program is only one of six intensive programs in the country. Since the program opened in July 2016, it has seen tremendous success in treating patients like Eva Tomassini who was diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) when she was 4 years old.

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A new study from a Cornell University sociologist shows that while parents enjoy the time they spend with their children, parenting carries more strain for mothers.

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Researchers at UC San Francisco have discovered a previously unknown mass migration of inhibitory neurons into the brain’s frontal cortex during the first few months after birth, revealing a stage of brain development that had previously gone unrecognized. The authors hypothesize that this late-stage migration may play a role in establishing fundamentally human cognitive abilities and that its disruption could underlie a number of neurodevelopmental diseases.

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A new therapeutic target for the treatment of compulsive binge eating has been identified by researchers at Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM).

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Study shows that If you leave a message with a therapist seeking mental health services you have a better chance of getting a callback that promotes care if you have a white-sounding name than a black one

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Empty shelves of bread and canned goods aren’t just a sign of last-minute hurricane cravings—the purchases are also a coping mechanism, says a University of Georgia weather and climate psychologist.

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Researchers in the Centre for the History of Medicine at the University of Warwick are investigating the impact of solitary confinement in prisons on mental health over the last 150 years, drawing on archival evidence, including the Howard League Archives held at Warwick University’s Modern Records Centre, and the memoirs of real prisoners.

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Research has revealed that exposure to bacterial proteins called amyloid that have structural similarity to brain proteins may lead to an increase in clumping of proteins in the brain. Aggregates of misfolded amyloid proteins are seen in the brains of patients with neurodegenerative diseases.

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Researchers at UAB have launched the first drug study aimed at preventing or delaying the onset of epilepsy in children with a genetic condition known as tuberous sclerosis complex.

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Women may have better verbal memory skills than men even when their brains show the same level of problems metabolizing glucose, which occurs in people with Alzheimer’s disease, according to research published in the October 5, 2016, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Sue Griffin, Ph.D., an internationally known Alzheimer’s disease researcher at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS), leads a team that has received a five-year, $10 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the causes and possible treatments for Alzheimer’s disease.

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A team led by two researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago has been chosen one of two finalists in a contest to use Apple’s ResearchKit, an open-source platform for creating apps, to develop a means to study mood disorders. As finalists, they will receive $100,000 to develop their app using Apple’s beta-testing platform, Test Flight.

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A new study shows that dance and music training have even stronger effects on the brain than previously understood — but in markedly different ways.

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World renowned psychiatrist Dr. Robert J. Ursano announced he will retire as chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) after more than 24 years in the position. Ursano will remain as the director of USU’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS).

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In a paper published in the academic journal Nature Communications, ISU scientists identified a protein that may safeguard neurons from the ravages of Parkinson’s disease.

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UCLA and four other institutions have been awarded a $13.9 million grant to evaluate treatment strategies for older adults with depression who have not responded to medications.

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With discussion in the presidential campaign of servicemembers and military veterans who experience post-traumatic stress disorder, psychologists are available to talk about the research behind the latest understanding and treatment of PTSD.

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A new study found patients with anxiety, phobias and fears showed greater improvement from therapy that was scheduled in the morning, when levels of cortisol -- a naturally occurring hormone -- tested higher.

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Fifteen individuals from UofL and more than 30 around the nation received Koru Mindfulness instructor training at the UofL School of Medicine.

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A protein linked to higher risk of Alzheimer’s can be removed from the brains of mice without hindering memory and learning, according to a study that addresses whether potential therapeutics targeting this protein would have detrimental side effects.

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Northwestern University scientists have discovered a new pathway in the brain that can be manipulated to alleviate depression. The pathway offers a promising new target for developing a drug that could be effective in individuals for whom other antidepressants have failed.

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Rather than taking medication, a growing number of people who suffer from chronic pain, epilepsy and drug cravings are zapping their skulls in the hopes that a weak electric current will jolt them back to health. Here's the issue: Until now, scientists have been unable to look under the hood of this DIY therapeutic technique to understand what is happening.

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Enzyme involved in brain inflammation appears to be key.

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A new study by a team of Johns Hopkins researchers found that most survivors of acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) decline physically in the five years after hospital discharge, and those at higher levels of risk of decline are older and had greater medical problems prior to hospitalization for ARDS.

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A scientific blueprint to end tobacco cravings may be on the way after researchers crystallized a protein that holds answers to how nicotine addiction occurs in the brain.

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A family-centered pre-k intervention developed at NYU Langone has a positive, lasting impact on child mental health and academic performance.

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A Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researcher has received a three-year “big data” grant from the National Science Foundation that will help researchers more effectively gather, use, and share neuroscience-related data, ultimately leading to better treatments.

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A new paper in the October issue of the journal Neurosurgical Focus finds the use of laser beneficial for the removal of large, “inoperable” glioblastoma (GBM) and other types of brain tumors. The authors describe how they treated larger, inoperable tumors safely with LITT when combined with a very small craniotomy which allowed them to suck out the cooked tumor to prevent swelling.

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Individuals and families affected by diabetes must navigate a complex mix of medical, behavioral and social changes in which psychology plays an integral role, according to the flagship journal of the American Psychological Association.

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Researchers at Center for BrainHealth, part of The University of Texas at Dallas, have revealed a link between the dopamine neurotransmitter system in the brain and an individual’s ability to recognize faces.

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A paper recently published in the Journal of Neuroscience by Donna Wilcock, PhD, of the UK Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, reports that a certain form of immunotherapy targeted to Alzheimer's patients may be ineffective when that patient also has VCID.

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A recently-recognized pathologic protein in the brain may play a larger role in the development of clinical Alzheimer’s disease dementia than previously recognized, according to a study by researchers at Rush University Medical Center. The findings of the study of nearly 1,000 older adults were published in the Sept. 30 issue of the journal, Brain.

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A team of researchers from the University of Saskatchewan has developed two caffeine-based chemical compounds that show promise in preventing the ravages of Parkinson’s disease.

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A safe, noninvasive weak electrical current delivery called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) will be investigated for its potential in treating schizophrenia patients in a study led by Raymond Cho, M.D., M.Sc., at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth.

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Georgetown University Medical Center today announces the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has completed its review of an investigational new drug application (IND) for the use of nilotinib in a phase II clinical trial for patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease.

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The case-control method, where researchers compare patients with a particular disease to healthy control participants, has increased understanding of disease-related effects at a group level. However, psychiatric pathology complicates assumptions of the method – that the illness can be defined and that patients cleanly fit the definition. Although psychiatry has characterized different diagnoses, patients within a diagnosis vary widely and symptoms often overlap diagnostic labels.

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Kimon Bekelis, MD, is a cerebrovascular/endovascular fellow at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital and instructor of health policy at The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice.

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Researchers at the University of Virginia (UVA) are starting the first clinical trial in the world using focused ultrasound to treat patients with epilepsy.

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Over two thirds (68 per cent) of the public would like more rest, according to the world’s largest ever survey on the topic.

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Can having a few drinks help people with clinical depression feel better? Yes. At least in terms of biochemistry.

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A woman’s perception that she is experiencing a high number of nighttime hot flashes can trigger mild symptoms of depression during menopause, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

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Comprehensive occupational therapy care requires a family-centered approach including treatment for the person with dementia and education for the caregiver. Clinical assessments exist to evaluate the capabilities of a person with dementia, but until now, occupational therapists did not have a validated instrument to gain understanding of the caregiver’s perceptions of the person with dementia’s abilities. Occupational therapist researchers at the Jefferson College of Health Professions at Thomas Jefferson University developed a first-of-its-kind tool to close this gap and published their findings in OTJR: Occupation, Participation and Health.

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Hunter Coffman was diagnosed with a brain tumor at Seattle Children’s when he was 2-years-old. While preparing for the surgery to remove the tumor, Hunter’s parents were also presented with the opportunity to enroll Hunter in Seattle Children’s Phase 1 trial of BLZ-100 Tumor Paint, a drug that aims to improve surgical outcomes by acting as a molecular flashlight that allows surgeons to visibly distinguish a tumor from normal brain tissue. BLZ-100 Tumor Paint was invented by a team led by Dr. Jim Olson, pediatric neuro-oncologist at Seattle Children’s.